Guildhall audition (15th of January 2016)

Guildhall School of Music and Drama… this is like one of my dream schools.

I got up like 3 hours early (probably out of excitement) but I did my warm ups, went for breakfast, and made my way to Sundial court.

There were a couple of people waiting when I got there and I got chatting and everyone seemed lovely. We then went to a small room with 3 recent grads waiting inside. They took our names and we were given a number for the warm up sesh. I was already feeling pretty warm as I had spent all morning annoying the next door neighbours I’m sure in the hotel (hehe) but it was very casual at guildhall and I liked it. Basically just walking round the space at different speeds, looking into people’s eyes and voice warm ups with stretches.

We then had a no-acting exercise were we walked forward a few steps, as if we were passing a shop window, and we saw something we really liked but then realised we had no money for it and walked away. The key was NO ACTING. It does sound silly ‘no acting’ as your auditioning for an acting course, but Guildhall really seem to be looking for people who are natural. Then we were asked to come up one by one and say our name, what we noticed this morning, why we love acting and the first line of our Shakey. Now there is a pressure to sound very intelligent here and have long-winded answers but if you just say it and own your space and not be apologetic in your answers then it’s more thrilling to watch. (This is what the panel told us all after we had all been up)

As I was given the number 1 at the beginning of the morning I was then first in to see the panel. I felt ready, especially just coming out of the warm up and I was genuinely excited to show them my pieces. They saw all 3 pieces, not my song however, and re-directed my modern and my second Shakespeare. In my second Shakespeare they had me run up and down the length of the room like 5 times and then start my piece and I suddenly had a new energy to my speech and yeah I think it went well. They then sat me down for the interview and asked me where else I had applied to and how I have been getting on/ what am I up to lately/ where can you see yourself in 10 years time/ do you have any questions. And then that was it. Done and dusted.

So as I was first to go in I had to wait for the 9 other people to have their audition slot so bring a book/ipod or go outside for lunch because it can be a wait at guildhall! Finally after everyone had been in to see the panel the two panellists walked in to our waiting room and gave the usual heavy speech ‘there are thousands of people applying for only so many places etc etc you get my drift.’ And they announced that they were only recalling one person today…

ME?!

I was so shocked I replied ‘are you sure?’ and they laughed and said ‘yes.’ :’) So a pretty good day! But a long way to go as there is another 2 day final round after the one I am going to! The next audition up was the following day for LAMDA x